


Before We Part (The Adventure's End Remix)

by citsiurtlanu



Category: Iron Man (Comics), Iron Man Noir, Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Community: cap_ironman, M/M, Remix, incursions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 11:46:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13569945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citsiurtlanu/pseuds/citsiurtlanu
Summary: Minutes away from incursion, Steve and Tony realize that this adventure will be their final one.





	Before We Part (The Adventure's End Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Little Faith](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13496170) by [snowshus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowshus/pseuds/snowshus). 



> I imagined skinny Steve when writing this, but it should be open-ended enough that any Steve will work here. :) Thanks to [needchocolatenow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/needchocolatenow) for the beta!!
> 
> This relay is part of a chain; you can find the full [masterlist](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/Cap_Ironman_Relay_Remix_2018/profile) on the Collection profile page.

The air around Tony was warm and heavy—normal, he knew, for India, but there was an oppression there that could only be blamed on the other earth hanging in the sky, huge and red and pushing in ever closer.

He looked at the remains of the broken finial in his hands—the remains of the last hope they’d had.  Until a moment ago, he’d wanted to believe that there would be some ancient, powerful relic hidden inside, one that he could use to banish the foreign universe so brutally trying to crush his own—but there wasn’t.  The clues were wrong.  Nothing was here, and their time was now up.

The worst of it was the suffocating truth that there was nothing more they could do.  Without the gem, all they had was their technology, and the reality was that their technology just wasn’t  _ there _ yet.  They would need years, decades more in order to come up with something that would have been able to even have a chance of stopping all this.

They barely had seven minutes.

From behind him, there was a grunt.  Tony let the pieces of metal fall out of his hands as he turned to see Steve climbing up onto the top of the vimana to join him.  This next part—God, this next part was going to be even harder to handle than his own disappointment, and he was already having to deal with the fact that they were minutes away from the end of the world.

“Took out all the A.I.M. guys on your tail,” Steve said as he found his footing on top of the cupola.  His face was smeared with dirt and blood, and somehow Tony still found him beautiful.  “We’re not gonna be interrupted anymore.  Was the gem here?”

Tony glanced down at the finial pieces he’d dropped; some had already rolled off the cupola.  Steve followed his gaze, and Tony knew that he understood.  Funny how often he felt that way—that Steve would know what Tony meant without Tony needing to say a word, like they were perfectly in sync.  Years of adventuring together had led them here, but Tony wondered if it also wasn’t something more.

Of course, with six minutes left, there would be no time to ever know for sure.

“When it happens,” Steve finally said after a moment, “I want to be on the ground.”

Tony nodded.  He understood why.  The surface beneath them was curved and unstable.  None of that would matter very soon, but if there was any comfort available, he would want to take it.  “Let’s climb down, then.”

“No,” Steve said.  “It’s not fast enough.”

For a brief, fleeting moment, Tony thought that Steve intended that they jump off the temple together—after all, what would be faster?  But then Steve was pulling out a length of rope, tying it around the base of the finial that still remained.  “Rappelling is quicker.”

“Oh,” Tony replied, and he wasn’t sure if he felt relief or not.  Regardless, he held still as Steve coiled the rope around him—and then he coiled it around himself as well, and suddenly Steve was very close, the two of them bound together by the rope.

“You ready?” Steve asked.

There were five minutes remaining.  How could he be ready for anything?

He nodded anyway.

Steve made a soft noise of assent, and together they made their way off the cupola, feet skimming the walls of the vimana as they headed down.  Tony knew he needed to pay more attention elsewhere, but he couldn’t help but stare at Steve the whole time, and Steve—Steve stared back.

His eyes were so blue, Tony thought.

He’d noticed before; of course he’d noticed before.  He’d spent so many years noticing and not once had he ever said a word about it.  And then a thought, beautiful and terrible, suddenly struck him—what if Steve, looking back at him right now so hard, was thinking the same thing with four minutes left in their world?

Their feet touched the ground, and the moment ended.  Or so Tony thought, anyway.  Before he could figure out what to do next, Steve had grabbed his arm and started leading them away from the temple, despite the fact that they were still entangled together by the ropes.  Maybe it didn’t matter, though.  Maybe it was actually better this way.

Steve’s trajectory was soon clear enough—as they approached two minutes remaining, they reached the shore of the Ganges, and here Steve sat them down on the white rocks that lined the river, his hand still clutching at Tony’s arm like a lifeline.

Tony turned to look back at the temple that loomed behind them, then ahead to where the other earth reflected so heavily off the water.  Then he turned to look at the most important thing, at Steve, and again Steve looked back at him.

A flurry of thoughts flitted through Tony’s mind.  He wanted to apologize for not doing enough.  He wanted to thank Steve here at the end, for adventuring with him all those years, for being one of the best people he had ever known.  He wanted to tell him how important he was, even if in just a little more than a minute none of them would be important to anyone.  All of that flashed through his head in a second, and yet he couldn’t make any of it come out into words.

But the thing with Steve, Tony felt, was that he didn’t actually need to say those things for Steve to know them.

So he reached forward instead, wrapping his arms around Steve and binding them more tightly than the rope still looped around them did.  He could feel Steve’s arms wrapping around him in return, his hands sliding against Tony’s back, and then he could feel Steve’s chin resting gently against his shoulder.

“Tony?” Steve said.

There was so little time left.  What could Steve have to say?  “Yeah?”

Steve turned, pressing his face against the crook of Tony’s neck.  “You told me there were thousands of earths like ours but different, and all of them were colliding.”

Tony remembered this conversation.  It had been weeks ago, when there had still been hope.  “Yes,” he said.  “And some of them will survive.”  Some would have the resources and means to pull it off—but most, like theirs, were doomed, and knowing they weren’t alone in their fates didn’t make things any easier.

To Tony’s surprise, Steve pulled back to gaze at him, and as if he knew the path Tony’s thoughts had taken, he reached up, placing his hand against Tony’s cheek.  “On one of those earths, then,” he said, voice quiet, “our story doesn’t end here.”

Tony gazed back, his heart pounding, and then he knew nothing but heat and light and Steve.


End file.
